


Prosopagnosia

by Uncle_Riko



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-29
Packaged: 2019-02-08 12:49:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12864855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uncle_Riko/pseuds/Uncle_Riko
Summary: She just couldn’t fathom what it’d be like to look upon the face of a loved one and see nothing.





	Prosopagnosia

**Author's Note:**

> muse is alive friends, but apparently they don't deserve more than 1K words

Kotori awoke to dazzling eyes of amber, gazing fondly, relievedly, at her. A constant pool of tears streamed down the young woman’s face as she embraced Kotori tightly. There was a sense of familiarity, of comfort and warmth about the woman. Her hair, long and silky, fell straight past her shoulders, as deep and blue as the ocean. But try as she may, Kotori couldn’t place the wispy fragments of memory that held the woman’s identity.

What was once relief, not more than a moment ago, slowly degenerated into horror as the woman watched the puzzled expression on Kotori’s face persist indefinitely. Their eyes met, but the blankness of Kotori’s stare was conclusive, gut wrenching.

She didn’t recognize Umi at all.

 

* * *

 

In the aftermath of the accident, there was far too much wallowing and self-loathing for Umi’s taste. But she couldn’t help it, she felt distraught, helpless, as if Kotori was being torn away from her. She felt completely and utterly alone, and there was nothing she could do about it. Sure, facial blindness was a mere slap on the wrist considering the other, far-more severe outcomes that could just have easily befallen Kotori. But that didn’t change the fact that the quiet lives they once shared, with each other, would never again return to how they were.

In her first futile attempt to combat Kotori’s condition, Umi dug out some old videos from their days in Muse. As the screen zoomed in on the nine girls in white and blue, the familiar music beginning to play, Kotori shouted out excitably, “Ah! This is Wonderful Rush! What great memories!”

Umi felt a glimmer of hope from Kotori’s reaction, decidedly moving forward with her test, “K-Kotori! D-Do you recognize this person?” She pointed at the screen, at the orange-haired girl with the cerulean eyes.

Kotori’s face contorted into a pout, a devastatingly cute expression any other day, but today, a clear indication that she had no recollection. “N-No, s-sorry...”

It’d been far too long since they’d last seen the spunky leader of Muse, but that certainly didn’t undermine the gravity of the situation: that Kotori didn’t recognize their dear friend, Honoka. Umi sighed heavily, her confidence in Kotori waning rapidly.

“…H-How about her?” She mustered up what little enthusiasm she had left as she pointed to the blue-haired girl, at herself. Perhaps Kotori would recognize that the person on the screen and the person she was sitting next to were one and the same.

“N-no…it’s not coming to me…”

Umi’s heart sank. She knew it was a mistake to dredge up old memories. She wasn’t doing either of them any favors at this point. But she had to know the extent of the condition; she had to know just what she was dealing with.

“W-Well then,” she gulped audibly, knowing she still had one more query yet. Pointing out one last girl, the song’s center, she prepared herself for the worst. “W-what about her…?”

Kotori blinked slowly, trying her best to process the face on the screen, her own face. “I…I don’t know…”

 

* * *

 

“Umi?”

“Yes?”

“Will you…sing me a song?”

The two lay nestled in bed, sleep’s graces having been particularly elusive of late. It was a novel idea, singing, one that Umi hadn’t thought of prior. Kotori probably knew Umi’s voice better than she herself did. But perhaps to Kotori, not everything was about overcoming her affliction. Perhaps she simply yearned for a lullaby, to hear in Umi’s voice some semblance of hope after what they’d endured together.

Umi glanced out the window, at the light snow beginning to fall.

“First snowfall of the year, isn’t it, Umi?”

She turned to face her lover, the glistening gold in Kotori’s eyes mirroring her own. There was a melancholic sort of smile on her face, a trademark of Kotori’s whenever she was feeling down. But if masking her sadness was one quality that made Kotori who she was, then perhaps things really hadn’t changed much after all.

It didn’t take long, not long at all, for Umi to recall the words to the song that would surely assuage their wintery blues.

 

...

 

Umi awoke to fresh mountains of snow, sheer white light cascading into the room. It was like a blank canvas, the world outside their windows. As beautiful as it appeared, it was an unfortunate consequence that it reminded Umi of Kotori, and what she must see every time she opened her eyes.

But as she looked softly upon the sleeping girl and her delicate, familiar features, she just couldn’t fathom what it’d be like to look upon the face of a loved one and see nothing. As the tears began to well up, now streaming down her face, Umi leaned forward, placing a kiss ever so gently on Kotori’s lips.

Content in letting Kotori sleep, Umi rose out of bed, yet it seemed Kotori had already begun to stir. “…Mmm…Umi…?”

Umi felt a surprising sense of bliss as Kotori’s eyes blinked open slowly. They both knew only one person could have left the kiss, yet Umi still found herself asking, “H-How did you know it was me…?”

Kotori’s expression was vibrant, as much as one could exude through drowsiness, “Your lips. I um…I recognized the taste…”

An unexpected blush crept up on Umi. This was no time to be embarrassed. “W-Well. Um…perhaps I can wake you up every morning with a kiss…? A-And sing you to sleep at night…?”

Kotori smiled at her, that bright and bubbly sort of smile that brought about an unprecedented feeling of warmth. “I’d love that, Umi.”

 


End file.
